‘Erik the Everyday Viking’ pillages minds and dresses like Krampus at Christmastime | We the People

For most of the year Erik Weiss is “Erik the Everyday Viking,” at left, but at Christmastime he also portrays Krampus, at right.

Avi Steinhardt / For the Inquirer and Erik Weiss

Meet Erik Weiss, a Viking reenactor and Philly native known as "Erik the Everyday Viking."

• Mind trip: "As long as you have a willing mind to explore new things, to find out different things, to understand the stuff that isn't just in your cup, everybody's a Viking," Weiss said.

• A breed all his own: Weiss used to breed his own colony of roaches to feed his pet reptiles. He doesn’t have the roaches anymore but he still has a snake named Loki, two toads, a lizard, and a chameleon.

When you choose to be called "Erik the Everyday Viking," it's hard to break out of character.

But each year at Christmastime Erik the Everyday Viking — who was born under the name Erik Weiss in the faraway land of Northeast Philadelphia — does just that. He sheds his wool cloak and chain mail for hooves and a horned goat mask and becomes Krampus, a demon from European lore who punishes bad kids at Christmas.

"I am the anti-Santa Claus," Weiss, 47, said. "If the kids were bad, you wouldn't get Santa, you'd get Krampus. And if you were really bad, he'd take you away."

Erik Weiss

A child cowers as Erik Weiss, dressed as Krampus, tries to place her in his burlap sack.

Weiss never imagined he could make a living dressing up as a Viking — or a horned man/goat demon — but over the last five years he's been able to transition from reenacting for fun to reenacting for profit at festivals, concerts, and schools. He even dresses up as Krampus at his local Chick-fil-A's trunk-or-treat every year.

"This is my day job," Weiss said of being a Viking reenactor. "One of the ways we make money in modern-day America is by pillaging. I mean, by appearances."

Before he was a reenactor, Weiss, who has a fiancee and a 14-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, said he was a "jack-of-all trades and a master of none," doing security work, landscaping, and the like around Philadelphia. Today, he lives in Whitehall, near Allentown.

Four years ago, Weiss and his fiancee auditioned as Vikings — "as a joke" — for the Philadelphia Renaissance Faire and were hired, he said. While he'd already schooled himself on Nordic and Viking culture, Weiss' Viking gear was lacking. He had a sleeveless leather shirt known as a jerkin, an ax, and a shield. That was it.

But over the last few years, Weiss has leveled up — adding much more gear to his costume and bestowing himself with the title of Jarl (or earl) of the Dark Order Clan.

Avi Steinhardt / For the Inquirer

Erik The Everyday Viking poses in his battle regalia.

"Now you see me as a jarl because I've earned the status and have everything a jarl would show up into battle with — an armored vest, chain mail shirt, jerkin, and a jarl's helmet," he said.

Weiss, who is of Norse ancestry, wears several charms around his neck including one that was gifted to him by a Slavic Viking and another that looks like an animal's tooth.

"This tooth I found in a Sam's Club parking lot," he said. "I took it as a sign from the gods."

He later learned it was a replica of a wolf's tooth.

While he does use running water, electricity, and electronics, Weiss also tries to live like a Viking a little bit every day through his cooking, woodworking, and attire.

When asked his opinion about white nationalists who have tried to co-opt Vikings for their own purposes in recent years, Weiss grabbed his ax and pounded it on the floor.

"This is the only time I will break character," he said. "Our symbols are not racist. Our symbols do not inspire hate. They inspire passion, love, and understanding of a culture [that white nationalists] know nothing about."

Avi Steinhardt / For the Inquirer

Erik The Everyday Viking speaks about the Jelling Stone, a replica of a Viking religious artifact at the Franklin Institute’s “Vikings: Beyond the Legend” exhibit.

Weiss said he's never been to Scandinavia but dreams of traveling across the "wooder" one day to see it. Then, he will truly be a Viking.

"What makes a Viking a Viking is someone who decides to go abroad, whether to steal, pillage, burn, or go out for an adventure, because that's the common core — looking for new lands, looking to explore," he said.

Know someone in the Philadelphia area whose story deserves to be told — or someone whose story you’d like to know? Send suggestions for We the People profiles to Stephanie Farr at farrs@phillynews.com or call her at 215-854-4225. Send tips via Twitter to @FarFarrAway.

Want more We the People?

• Surrealist artist Alden Cole has turned his South Philly rowhome into an imaginarium of his own work.

• Syrian refugee Amina Aliako went from being a janitor at Reading Terminal Market to becoming a vendor there in just a year.